Black cumin seed for local consumption and other importance, such as oil and oil rosin for medicinal purposes, export market, crop diversification, income generation, reducing the risk of crop failure and others made black cumin as a best alternative crop under Ethiopian smaller land holdings. Thus, for sustainable use of this crop, the producers demand for conservation through utilization needs economic value estimation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to estimate households’ willingness to pay (WTP) value for conservation black cumin and analyze the determining factors that affects willingness of households to participate in the conservation of black cumin in the study area. To attain the stated objectives contingent valuation survey questionnaires were distributed to elicit farmers WTP for improved conservation of black cumin. A total of 180 households’ were randomly selected from 8 kebeles of two Woredas of the study Zone. The result indicated that 172 (95.55%) were willing to pay, while the rest 8 (4.44%) were not willing to pay (contribute) for black cumin conservation. Logistic regression model result shows that the statistically significant determinants of WTP for the participation in black cumin conservation in the study area were availability of labor for farm activities, distance from market, households’ livestock holding, initial BID1 offered and productivity of the land at 5% significance level, and total farm l income and perception about the importance of black cumin conservation at 1% level. The mean willingness to pay for the sampled respondents was 85.32 ($213.30) labour day per year. Hence, the aggregate economic value of black cumin conservation is 3,119,469.84 ($7,798,674.57) person days per annum. Therefore, policy should give emphases at all levels for production, conservation and sustainable utilization of black cumin farm variety.

Black Cumin, Economic Value, WTP, Conservation, Ethiopia